It has come to my attention that I’m distracted. The one task I gave myself this morning was to write this blog. But in the 45 minutes since I sat down to focus on writing, I got a phone call, a couple of text messages, and 5 emails that needed quick responses. Then I realized I was hungry, so I got a snack. Just now, my phone buzzed at me: 4 new emails and a Facebook friend request. And so, after 45 minutes of writing, I have one measly paragraph to show for it. But it wasn’t really 45 minutes of writing, was it? More like 30 minutes of distractions, 10 minutes of gathering my thoughts and refocusing on writing, and 5 minutes of actual writing. Which brings me to the heart of what I want to talk about today: multitasking. Multitasking is the efficient-sounding *pause to respond to a text message* phenomenon of doing multiple tasks simultaneously or, more accurately, quickly switching back-and-forth between tasks. *Pause to think about another email I need to write today.* Where was I? Oh yeah, why should we stop multitasking? Multitasking sounds great, but in reality, our brains weren’t designed to do multiple concentration-requiring tasks at once. Sure, we can probably chew gum and walk at the same time; both require muscle-memory, but not much concentration. Not like writing a blog and carrying on a conversation with someone at the same time. The brain can’t focus on both things at once. So instead, we put the writing on hold to have the conversation. When we switch back to the first...

If you’re in the service industry, then you know that success is directly related to customer satisfaction. Happy customers will recommend your company to people they know; they’ll say good things about you; and they’ll become repeat customers. Good customer service means making each client feel important. You can do that by following up with customers after you meet. Email campaigns make following up with customers easy. An email campaign sends a sequence of emails at predetermined intervals. Your customer will receive the emails in that campaign sequence automatically. Email campaigns are your secret weapon for customer service ninja awesomeness! The email campaign feature is coming to PEP Cloud, which makes this an ideal time to share some tips on creating awesome email campaigns. (There are lots of CRM programs available with email campaign capabilities. Even if you’re not using the Painter’s Estimating Program, you can still follow these steps and make fantastic email campaigns.) Here are 3 steps to creating successful email campaigns: Decide on the target audience. As a painter, you may want one campaign for customers with exterior jobs and another for interior-job customers. Or you may want a campaign for customers who qualify for a special offer. You can create a more personalized experience for your customers by making email campaigns that target specific audiences. Plan the timeline. Decide what you want to say to your customers, when you want to say it, and how often you want to contact them. Let’s say you met a new client today and gave her a proposal for her job. In an ideal world, when...